I'm Not Erma Bombeck

Back in my youth the local newspaper would have two pages of editorials, columns, political cartoons, and letters to the editor. I devoured those pages - particularly the columns. My two favorite columnists Sydney Harris and Art Buchwald. Alas, those days are gone - as are they.

One very popular columnist during those days was Erma Bombeck, though her columns were often put in the feature pages. I'll be honest; as a young man, I was not as interested in columns about being a housewife, raising children, living in the suburbs, losing socks, and so on. But I did read her occasionally, and appreciated her talent and sense of humor.

I recently came across an article about her, and I read a few of her collected columns

They reminded me of some of my own parenting experiences with three daughters.

The time youngest daughters decided to create a snowstorm using baby powder in the nursery. We were finding powder in books, clothes, and the ceiling light for weeks after.

Or the time the girls were taking a bath together and youngest daughter pooped in the tub. Oldest daughter scaled the side of the tub like a screaming spider.

Or the time at Mass oldest daughter needed a diaper change and discovering that we'd forgotten to resupply the diapers in the diaper bag, so she finished the Mass wearing my handkerchief.

Or the many grammar school concerts when some of the musicians actually hit the intended notes.

Or the many cold, snowy nights Christmas caroling door-to-door with their Girl Scout troop.

Or telling them every night a bedtime story (The Trunk Story) I was making up with them as characters, borrowing liberally from every children's book and myth I'd ever read or heard. 

Or the many nights long after bed time growling up the stairs, "I can hear you."

Or the even more middle-of-the-nights holding a crying child while rocking and rocking and sleepily singing "Hush little baby, don't say a word...." 

Or the other many moments of raising three daughters, now grown women living in their own homes.

Looking back, I realize I had had plenty of material for writing could have written columns like Bombeck's, only from the dad's point of view. Alas, I didn't I wasn't Erma. 

Oh, I could still write columns today about having an empty nest, or growing older, or deaing with a new-fangled technical world. Car problems. Dental woes. Noisy neighbors. Realizing the Golden Oldies station is playing songs I used (and sometimes still do) own. Finding all the craft projects and home-made cards created for Father's Day. Being on hold and listening to the same endless tune. Dog adventures while walking around the neighborhood. 

And then, there's always missing socks.  

Pax et bonum

Bible Traces of the Catholic Church

Pax et bonum

A Human Being With Great Potential

Pax et bonum

Stand Together For Life (February 24, 2024)

More than 50 people braved the near zero windchill to take part in the February 23, 2024, Stand Together for Life. Catholics and Protestants gathered together in front of Rochester's Planned Parenthood headquarters to pray, sing, hear speakers, and witness.   

They heard a talk by Father Anthony Mugavero, OFS, that included a warning about the very-pro-abortion New York Equal Protection of Law Amendment that will be on the ballot this November.. 

There was a small collection of infant items for Focus Pregnancy Help Center.

Music was provided by Dan Celso.

We also got to see the ultrasound van purchased with pro-life funds to provide an alternative to Planned Parenthood.

Pax et bonum

Tree (Outside the Chapel)

When I am volunteering at the St. Padre Pio Chapel, if there are no visitors, I say a Rosary. While I pray the Rosary, I walk up and down the aisles.

As I walked by some windows, I spotted a tree in the field just outside the Chapel. I paused to look at it.

It stood out, leafless, in the field.

Each time I walked by those windows, I glanced again at the tree. 

It became part of my prayers. Like the Tabernacle with it's flickering electric candle, and the large Crucifix at the front of the Chapel, and the Statues of various saints, and the paintings of Mary and Jesus.

And I think of Joyce Kilmer's "Trees": 

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

 

Thank you God.

Pax et bonum

America First?

America First?

No.

God First.

Pax et bonum

Unborn Lives Matter Cartoon

Pax et bonum

Alabama Supreme Court Rules Frozen Embryos are Unborn Children

Alabama Supreme Court Rules Frozen Embryos are Unborn Children

About that blurb ...

I already offered my assessment of  Winter's Child by Margaret Coel (basically good, but ended the series with things unresolved). but there was one other observation I did not share.

The book was published in 2016 . On the cover was a blurb from Tony Hillerman. "[Coel is] a master."

It made sense to have a comment about a reservation-based mystery from the renowned author of the great Navajo mysteries.

But ... Hillerman died in 2008. Eight years before Coel's book was published.

Yes, given the nature of the quotation, he likely said it at some point about her. But still, eight years after he died?  

My sarcastic side wondered if maybe he supplied it for this book through a seance.

Whenever he said it, it seemed kind of sketchy that they used it after he was dead.

Now if I can only get Dickens to provide a blurb for one of my Christmas tales.

Pax et bonum

Baptism and Confirmation Dates

Pope Francis once said that we should celebrate our Baptismal dates.

"It is like a birthday because baptism makes us reborn in Christian life," he aid to parents. "That is why I advise you to teach your children the date of their baptism as a new birthday: that every year they will remember and thank God for this grace of becoming a Christian.“

I decided to dig out my Baptismal record. I found it, as well as my Confirmation certificate.

I looked up what is celebrated in Church history on those dates.

I was Baptized on July 17, and was pleased to discover is the feast of Saint Charbel Makhlouf, a Lebanese Maronite Catholic monk.

I had first become aware of Saint Charbel at the Fatima Shrine in Lewiston, N.Y. They have a statue of him there, and I was impressed by his beard!

And a couple of years ago, some local Lebanese Catholics donated a statue of him and some prayers to him to the Saint Padre Pio Chapel where I volunteer and where my Secular Franciscan Fraternity meets. I took information about a Novena to Saint Charbel, and I have been saying it every day since as part of my night prayers.

My Confirmation date was October 13. That date jumped out at me immediately.

On October 13, 1917, thousands of people witnessed the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima.

The Apparition of Our Lady at Fatima has been declared worthy of belief by the Church. On the anniversary of that Marian day I chose as my Confirmation name Joseph. How appropriate.

So now I have added reasons to mark the dates of my Baptism and my Confirmation.

Thank you Pope Francis!

Pax et bonum

Fani Willis and Grey Goose

Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis
on the stand appeared to be quite cheerless.
Maybe things would have gone better if she'd first gotten loose
with the help of some Grey Goose. 

Pax et bonum

Santa's Diary Update February 15

Progress continues. Now up to March 10 for entries! 

Finished with the courtship of Mrs. Claus. Trying to decide whether to wait for the wedding until their anniversary. Having spent so much time on the courtship I haven't made many antries about ongoing events at the Pole. I might space out some of the courship entries to deal with North Pole events.

Now dash away all!

Pax et bonum

Winter's Child (Coel)

Like many other libraries, my local library has a section with used books for sale. The books have either been donated, or have been culled from the library collection. The culled books are ones that are no longer actively circulating and are not "classics" that the library wants to retain.

The other day I was in the library and noticed a Margaret Coel Wind River mystery on the used table.

I was not surprised. Although she is a good writer, and the books in the series were popular, their time is  passing, and like so many other contemporary popular works of fiction they are gradually passing out of public consciousness.

I read a number of the books in the series, having a fondness for mysteries set on Native American reservation. I had read (and enjoyed) all the Tony Hillerman Navajo mysteries, and having learned about Coel's Wind River mysteries I decided to give them a try.

At first, I enjoyed them. Cole is a good genre writer. But then I began seeing a pattern. The main characters, divorced Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden, and the alcoholic priest Father John O'Malley, are obviously attracted to each other, but their relationship remains at the attraction and sexual tension level; they never seemed to grow as characters the way that the Navajos in Hillerman's mysteries do. It also made me wonder if at some point in her life Coel had been attracted to a priest!

Moreover, the protagonists kept stumbling into danger because of their own impetuousness and boneheaded decisions; they never seemed to learn. 

There also seemed to be ambiguity - and a more worldly view - when it came to sexual morality. That was not something I expected when reading a mystery about a Catholic priest. Indeed, given the worldly view, I would not have been shocked if at some point Father O'Malley had said, "Forget celibacy!" and hopped in the sack with the all-too-willing Holden.

I got bored with the series. 

Then I learned that Coel had announced that the 20th book in the series, Winter's Child, was to be the last one. Not surprising given her age (she's currently in her 80's). There were also hints that this book would resolve some of the issues.

I added the book to my list of reading goals for this year.

I managed to secure a copy of it last week, and finished it last night.

It is well-written for the genre; as I noted earlier, Coel is a good writer. The protagonists face danger, but not because of boneheaded decisions on their parts, so this is an improvement.

The protagonists' mutual attraction remains, as does the sexual morality ambiguity, though there are hints that casual sex can lead to pain.

However, speaking as a father myself, the reaction toward the end of the book of the father of the titular child seems, given his earlier words and actions, too convenient. 

But in the end, questions remain unresolved. It seems our protagonists will never get together, but you don't know. Holden has a romantic possibility with another man, but you don't know. The mission church might close and Father O'Malley might be assigned elsewhere, but you don't know. Father O'Malley's niece may start a sexual relationships with a Native American man who had been considering the priesthood, but you don't know. The child of the title may be found, but you don't know.

Sigh.

After finishing it, I wondered if Coel has a manuscript tucked away that actually provides resolution, but it is not to be released until after she dies 

But you don't know.

Anyway, another 2024 reading goal met. 

After reading this one, I will probably not read any more of Coel's books.

But you don't know.

Pax et bonum

Biden Supports ...

Pax et bonum

Santa's Diary Update - A Shower Inspiration

Work continues on Santa's Diary. I already have entries either written or sketched out though early March - more than 25,000 words so far!

There are several issues on my mind. I write like an educated adult but should this be more of a children's story? I try to be scientifically accurate (well, as accurate as a story about Santa can be!). Still, there are conflicts with the Santa mythos - the workshop on Polar Ice at the North Pole, for example. The ice is not that thick, so how does it support that wight? And how to shield a complex from planes, satellites, etc? They certainly didn't exist back when the North Pole Workshop legend was first created. And how do you feed hundreds of elves, gnomes, dwarves, etc, working at the workshop?

The next entry sketched out yesterday deals with the food issue, . 

This morning in the shower I fleshed out that food entry, and then I had a sudden inspiration for dealing with the one of the other issues.

Yes, in the shower. A writer never stops working!

It's so cold and dark at the North Pole for several months of the year. Bitterly cold - getting down to -50 at times. And the wind, brrr.

But just as I earlier came up with an elf science way to strengthen the ice, I've come up with an elf science way to deal with the cold and wind. And to hide the complex.

This means going back and revising some earlier entries, but it will be worth it.

As for elf science, it's one of the ways to explain their "magic." They just understand natural elements and forces in a way that we do not, and are able to manipulate them. So it's not magic; it's using the intellectual gifts God gave them.

Pax et bonum

No Delight

I like short essays. I own several collections, and have borrowed a number of collections from the library.

Today I went to the library to get out a collection of Dylan Thomas's poetry for a literary discussion group I'll be attending later this week. As I regularly do, I also checked the new acquisitions shelf. I spotted a recent collection of short essays. The blurbs on that back used such terms as "sunshine," "joy," "brilliant," and more gushing encomia.

Okay, I know blurbs are not always sincere - you tout my book and I'll tout yours - but I thought I'd give the collection a try given the types of essays they were and the interesting format the author used (one similar to what I am doing with Santa's Diary).

After finished some of my regular reading and writing, I decided to sample one of the essays.

Found out the author - 40-something - was living with his girlfriend. In his 40's? Didn't he grow up?

I also found out he was fond of using colorful language - including some f-bombs. 

I skimmed some of the other essays to see if this was a pattern. Yep. 

Oh, a few of the essays were interesting, and he is a skilled wordsmith. But I also found some of the essays kind of superficial or uninteresting. 

And that vulgar language persisted.

The book provided no delight for me. 

It gets returned to the library unfinished.

Back instead to Dickens and spiritual works. 

Pax et bonum

Progressive Ideology ...

Progressive ideology is a form of soft totalitarianism.
Progressive ideology ignores inconvenient facts.
Progressive ideology tends to call for seeking God by looking in mirrors.
Progressive ideology promotes constant change over constancy.
Progressive ideology denigrates sexual morality.

Progressive ideology tends to elevate the ephemeral over the essential.
Progressive ideology seeks to replace natural law with unnatural ways.
Progressive ideology tends to devalue motherhood.
Progressive ideology sets its sights on mirages.
Progressive ideology uses euphemisms to hide reality.
Progressive ideology tends to either dismiss religion, or to encourage manufacturing a religion in one's own image.

Pax et bonum